Years Ago

Today is Saturday, Dec. 25th, the 359th day of 2010. There are 6 days left in the year. This is Christmas Day.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1066: William the Conqueror is crowned king of England.

1776: Gen. George Washington and his troops cross the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, N.J.

1818: “Silent Night,” written by Franz Gruber and Father Joseph Mohr, is performed for the first time, at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.

1931: New York’s Metropolitan Opera broadcasts an entire live opera over radio for the first time: “Hansel and Gretel” by Engelbert Humperdinck.

1941: During World War II, Japan announces the surrender of the British-Canadian garrison at Hong Kong.

1989: Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, are executed following a popular uprising.

Former baseball manager Billy Martin dies in a traffic accident in Fenton, N.Y.

1990: The World Wide Web, the system providing quick access to websites over the Internet, is born in Geneva, Switzerland, as computer scientists Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau create the world’s first hyperlinked webpage.

1991: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev goes on television to announce his resignation as the eighth and final leader of a communist superpower that had already gone out of existence.

1995: Singer Dean Martin dies at his Beverly Hills home at age 78.

2006: James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul,” dies of heart failure in Atlanta at age 73.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: Production workers at the Borden Dairy and Services Inc. plant receive a Christmas gift with settlement of their 24-day strike.

Andy Ady, of Champion, winner of a $1.6 million Ohio lottery jackpot in October makes good on a promise to his five grandchildren, buying each of them an all-terrain vehicle.

Boardman Township Clerk Ann W. Taylor tells trustees the township will carry a cash balance of $520,000 into 1986.

Bob Shaw, former football coach at Niles McKinley High School, is hired as an assistant to Gerry Faust, the new coach of the University of Akron Zips.

1970: Youngstown Research & Development Corp. has prepared quotations on its revolutionary Taylor rolling mill for a number of U.S. and foreign steel company and hopes to sell at least one unit in 1971, says William F. Zarbaugh, company president.

Jackie McClaren, a medical student at the University of Cincinnati, returns to her Youngstown home in time for Christmas from a six-month stint at a mission hospital in southwest Liberia.

The Lombard Corp. engineering firm at 641 Wick Ave. has developed a 2,000 ton hydraulic press that can be used to compact refuse and garbage into compact, easy to move bales bound for the nation’s landfills.

Playing at the Southern Park Cinema, “Love Story,” starring Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal. “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

1960: A robber hides in the car of Al Daltorio, manager of the Century Food Market on Mahoning Avenue, and escapes with several hundred dollars in store receipts.

William J. Bryson, president of Rusco Products Inc., is one of a group of area businessmen working to make Youngstown the aluminum center of the country.

Frankie Lester sings with and directs the Billy May Orchestra for a Christmas Night dancing party at the Elms Ballroom.

1935: Sheriff Ralph Elser leads a Christmas party and service in the chapel of the Mahoning County Jail for 133 prisoners being held on the holiday. The prisoners are there for crimes ranging from public drunkenness to murder.

The Roosevelt administration announces that it will continue to provide relief for 3.5 million people, but no more than that.

The Rev. J.W. VanKirk drapes the cannons on Youngstown’s Central Square with white cloths on Christmas Day while he delivers an address on world peace “on the anniversary of the birth of the Prince of Peace.”